Monic peoples
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The Monic peoples, also known as Monic civilisation, collectively refer to a family of related ethnic groups spanning from eastern Velkia to eastern Borea and Lahudica. Coveting between prime meridian and antimeridian, the speakers of Monic languages is one of the most widespread major ethnic groups in Esquarium, alongside that of Pan-Esquarian languages.
Definition
Scattering across half the globe, the Monic peoples are highly varied in culture and language, with many of the migratory branches assimilating, or being assimilated by the native population and adopted their cultural practice and language.
The most conservative definition of Monic peoples is one of ethnolinguistics: ethnic groups that speak a Monic language as the native language. In this definition, the only predominantly Monic polities today are Akai, Namor, Tinza and Xiaodong - Literary Tuthinan, although a Monic language, is no longer spoken in Tuthina as a native language.
A wider definition, one endorsed by Monic Union, extends beyond the ethnolinguistic definition and includes people whose culture has seen "extensive influence with Monic civilisation". Under this definition, polities such as Jathana, Kaona, Senria and Tuthina, as well as non-dominant ethnic groups in Evroseia and other countries are included as part of the Monic peoples.
An even wider definition, usually advocated by supporters of Pan-Monic panethnicity and pan-nationalism, includes people whose land has once been ruled over by the Monic people. Commonly including the majority of Borea, it is not widely accepted by academic circles as a valid definition.
History
The Monic peoples are one of the first people in Esquarium to have a writing system, with archaeological evidence of logographic writing system dating back to 4th millennium BC in Nozama valley. Originating from modern Namor, the proto-Monic people practised sedentism, and may have developed rudimentary agriculture in the fertile river valley as early as 6th millennium BC in the wake of the last glacial period.
Prehistory
The end of Holocene Climatic Optimum 5,000 years Before Present (BP) led to decrease of arable land inhabited by proto-Monic people, as temperature drop resulted in arable land migrating towards the Equator. It is believed that the proto-Monic people became divided into two major groups: some migrated southward to maintain their agricultural lifestyle, and some supplemented their food source with pastoralism. According to the exodus theory of migratory people, conflict over dwindling arable land eventually led to the pastoral Monic people to move northward into western Borea as agricultural Monic people took control of their farmland, marking the beginning of the Great Monic Migration across the Borean continent.
The migratory Monic people, an umbrella term for all Monic people in Velkia, practised nomadic pastoralism, either fully or partially with limited agriculture. Although estimated to have a smaller population than various indigenous Borean people, the Monic people are believed to have defeated and conquered many aboriginal ethnic groups during their migration. Archaeological evidences across Borea suggest that the migratory Monic people are among the first adopters of ironwork and chariot, as well as saddle and stirrup, granting them granting them significant military advantage over the local population.
Many southern branches of migratory Monic people maintained certain degree of farming technique, and assumed a more sedentary lifestyle compared with their steppe counterpart. Establishing city-states alongside southern Borean coast, many of these "conqueror states" were soon assimilated with the local population due to their small population size, resulting in a band of Monic-influenced cultures from Razaria to Xiaodong.
In the inland steppe, lack of arable land had resulted in the migratory Monic population abandoning agriculture altogether, relying on pastoralism as the predominant model of subsistence. Most dominant in southern Evroseia, steppe Monic people underwent significant interaction with local population, who had adopted nomadism possibly due to similar circumstance. It was theorised that both saddles and stirrups were first invented in the eastern Borean steppe by either population, before quickly adopted by the other - army of chariots that characterised coastal Monic culture were too material-intensive for nomad population to maintain. Smaller in number, many of the steppe Monic population eventually assimilated into the local population, although many groups of them still persist to this day, including the Kwaic people, who eventually migrated to Lahudica and established their own polity in Tuthina.
Early history
In the wake of the Great Monic Migration, many area previously conquered or settled by migratory Monic people were gradually taken by either indigenous population or other migrations, particularly that of the Pan-Esquarian speakers that now dominate western Borea. Barring isolated communities and city-states in between, the majority of Monic peoples ruled over either western Borea a as the predecessors of Namor, or eastern Borea-Lahudica that later evolved into polities like Senria, Tinza, Tuthina and Xiaodong. Despite vast distance between the two centres of Monic civilisations, land- and sea-based trade routes in Borea allowed a certain degree of interaction between them, which is often cited to be part of the reason the distinct Monic populations do not diverge as much as other communities in similar separation.